Struck Love

“Copper.” I bark out his name over the music. He lifts his head, his glassy eyes meeting mine. “Up,” I order him. The chick on her knees seems more than happy for my interruption and to be done with the blow job. I’m guessing she’s been at it for a while. Copper is too stoned to get off. I watch as he stumbles to his feet.

“I was in the middle of something,” he protests but shuts up when he sees it’s me standing in front of him.

“You okay?” I ask the girl. She’s high as a kite too.

“Yeah.” She wipes her mouth with the back of her hand. I motion for one of the prospects to come over.

“Get her home and find out how she got in here. She’s stoned.” They all know I don’t mean from weed or even a bit of coke. Anything beyond that isn’t allowed anymore, and everyone knows that. It’s part of why I keep people stationed at the door to screen who comes in. I swear I’m starting to feel as though I’m a goddamn parent around here having to watch after my teenage children.

“Got it, Pres.”

“What? I was just having a bit of fun.” I snatch Copper by the back of the neck. He shuts his mouth real quick when he sees I’m not fucking around.

“A bit of fun. I can show you a bit of fun.” I nail him with a kidney shot, my anger getting the best of me. I’m not sure if it’s because I know he’s doing hardcore drugs or if I’m still recalling the fact that Olivia lied to me about Copper being her boyfriend.

Copper’s knees give out, but I’ve got a firm grip on his neck. He yelps in pain. No way am I taking him to see Olivia now. He’s never going anywhere near her. I should spank her ass for trying to get near him.

I whistle for a couple of brothers to come over and get him. “Put him in his old man’s room for the night. He’s on lockdown.” I know it’s only a temporary solution, but at least I’ll know where he is. Tomorrow I’ll have to come up with a more permanent plan on how I’m going to deal with Copper. Tonight I need to focus on Hart.

“Got it.” Charlie takes him from me.

I didn’t even bother trying to get any information out of Copper. He was almost incoherent. Which means I’m going to have to find out from my girl why she’s here looking for him. Something tells me that she’s not going to make it easy for me.

But it still might be a bit of fun. I smile at the thought.

That is until I make it back to my office and find it empty. My office window is wide open.

“Shit, I’m sorry, Pres,” Brute says. It’s not as though he could have done anything about it. I walk over to the window, looking down. The little brat jumped. She could have damn well hurt herself.

“Is your girl gone too?” Arch comes barreling into my office out of breath.

“Yeah.” I snag Hart’s bag from Brute, dumping it out onto my desk. “She won’t get far,” I reassure Arch. For as pissed as we both are, Arch still manages to smile.

If there is one thing Arch and I could always do, it’s find what we were looking for. It didn’t matter if we were in the middle of a jungle or dropped in the middle of the desert. We’ve always been an unstoppable team. I’m not sure these girls know what they’re up against.

We sure as hell didn’t.

6

Olivia

Not only was last night a bust, but I’m going to have to hear it from my brothers now. Vee is still fast asleep in bed. I think it was the adrenaline of sneaking out of a motorcycle club. When we’d made it back to her place, we both shoved our faces with pizza and crashed while watching reality TV.

As soon as I jumped down from the window at the club last night, I went in search of Vee. I was not surprised to find her trying to make her escape as well. I’m guessing their plan was to divide us and interrogate us or something. I still can’t understand how the heck everything went so wrong so fast last night. Both Vee and I had been so sure the problem was going to be getting into the place. Not out.

I still can’t believe I managed to jump down out of that window. I’m giving credit to all those years of gymnastics my dad made me take because he thought I needed to have some kind of extra activity in my life.

I push out the front door when I hear my brother's truck coming down the gravel driveway to Vee’s place. Ben rolls down his window, not bothering to get out. From his messy hair I’m guessing he rolled out of bed and headed over. He must be in a hurry.